Blood of the Cybermen – the second of four free Doctor Who games – will be released this Saturday on the BBC website. With the first game, City of the Daleks, the BBC did a pre-release a couple of days early so check their site if you want to see if this will again be the case.

The Adventure Games – Blood of the Cybermen

“The Doctor and Amy materialize in the Arctic – where members of a survey team are turning from flesh to metal and digging something sinister from under the ice that’s been waiting thousands of years – an army of Cybermen!

This is your chance to be the Doctor. Are you ready for the challenge?”

The second Adventure Game will be free to download from the official site, on Saturday, 26 June

The games are free to UK residents, those outside the UK will have to purchase the episodic titles next month – or alternatively use a UK proxy address to ask their ISP and make it look like they are in the UK…

The game designers have mentioned that they are bringing back an adversary of the Doctor not seen since the 4th Doctor… Although they haven’t said so, the trailer and concept art make it clear that this means Cybermats.

The screenshots and concept are also reveal Cybermen and partially converted Cyber-humans – so will this be (yet another) rebirth for the Cybus Cybermen in our universe? Quite possibly so – the design of the Cybermen in this story is basically that of the Cybus Cybermen, but the chest logo has been changed from the “C” to a stylised Cyberhead.

An abandoned Arctic research centre… an ancient relic… an off-screen terror – the classic ingredients of a Doctor Who episode. Only this time you are the Doctor. Episode two of the Doctor Who: The Adventure Games has today been unveiled by the BBC – and the good news is fans won’t have to wait long to get their hands on it.

The game will be available to download from the Doctor Who website this Saturday (26th June 2010), immediately after the thrilling TV series finale.

‘Blood of the Cybermen’ has been executively produced by Steven Moffat, stars Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, has been written by Phil Ford, and is developed by BBC Wales and Sumo Digital.

The games have been designed to complement the TV series, giving players the opportunity to finally ‘be’ the Doctor. The first episode ‘City of the Daleks’ received over 525,000 download requests in its first 12 days.

“Blood of the Cybermen is classic ‘Who,” says Phil Ford, Writer, Blood of the Cybermen, Doctor Who Waters of Mars and The Sarah Jane Adventures. “From the intriguing title, through the pre-credits intro to the mystery surrounding the Arctic base, this is everything you expect from a TV episode – only this time you control the action. It’s an epic story, and one we could only tell in a computer game. We’ve ambitious sets, a thrill-a-minute narrative, and we re-introduce a Doctor Who adversary not seen since the Tom Baker era.”

But perhaps the single most interesting revelation about the Cybermen (or at least the Cybus versions) is that we found out what is inside a Cyber-helmet.

It wasn’t only The Pandorica opening during this episode…

The skull beneath the helmet was a very nice touch. Perhaps it might have been better still with some wires and circuitry embedded into the skull and so on, but this was a great scene. What next for the Cybermen…

From a Cybermaniac’s point of view, one of the most interesting things about The Pandorica Opens was the unveiling of previously unknown cyber-powers and abilities.

We get our first in-story hint that the Cybermen will be involved in the action with some establishing shots of dismembered Cyber-bodyparts… but at this point it looks like the Cybermen are done and dusted so no longer a threat…

However it isn’t long before we discover that is seems there’s no such thing as a “dead” Cyberman…

Amy was in for a nasty surprise (or three)… including the revelation that a Cyberman can “spit” tranquilliser darts to subdue human victims for Cyber-conversion…

…which was just as well, as then we discover that not only can Cyberheads function independently… So too can Cyberbodies…

Even when blown to pieces, it seems the Cybermen have a very impressive self-repair function…

This story was certainly a special effects triumph – and I think that the Cybermen got the best deal from the SFX department. One of the problems any design of monster has to overcome is the fact that all too often it still looks like “a bloke in a suit”. The excellent use of the headless and one-armed Cyberman in The Pandorica Opens helps to encourage our ability to suspend disbelief. This Cyberman didn’t look like just another bloke in a Cybersuit, it very (special) effectively broke down the limits imposed by the human form to look like a genuinely mechanical non-human. Nicely done – hopefully we’ll see more of this kind of thing in future Cyber-stories.

One of the interesting things about this clip is that it specifically mentions not only the Cybermen but a fleet of Cyberships.

Up until now, the Cybus Cybermen have only appeared in Earth-based stories and have displayed no obvious sign of having developed pace travel. Either they have somehow become well established in “Our Universe” and developed their technology… or perhaps the original Cybermen may make an appearance…?

+++We++Will++Survive+++

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